Thursday, November 28, 2013

I am about to get another round of angry women bashing me for what I am about to say. And I am willing to stick my neck out again because I am so sick and tired of this injustice happening over and over again; men being accused of rape without evidence of any such thing happening. Again, I remind you, I am not saying women are never date raped, that there aren't quite a few men committing this criminal act; I am simply saying, let's stop condemning men without proof. A charge of rape can destroy a man's life just as an actual rape can destroy a woman's, maybe even more so because while she is seen forever as a victim, he is seen forever as a psychopathic criminal sex predator.

Jack Armstrong's name is now mud. He has had the label "rapist" attached to his name in hundreds of news articles like this one from the Los Angeles Times. Essentially, the story says that in 2010, Armstrong met the woman outside of a Beverly Hills bar, they went in and he bought her a few beers, and next thing she knew, she woke up in a hotel room with her pants off and with soreness in her private parts. She felt nauseous.

Based on her story, it is being insinuated that Armstrong roofied the woman's beer and from that moment on, she was unconscious on her feet (and off of it) and he raped her while she was dead to the world.

Police say he used his celebrity status to attract his victim.“He met the victim at a bar in West Hollywood,” Beverly Hills police
Sgt. Max Subin said. Armstrong took the victim to a hotel and she
reported the rape the next day, March 5, 2010, he said.The attack could have been drug-induced, Subin said.“She woke up, didn’t feel right and realized she was assaulted,” he said.

So, there is no proof of any date rape drug being used.Either she never got tested for it or the test came back negative. Just because the woman didn't feel right when she woke up, doesn't mean she was given GHB or Rohypnol - who feels great in the morning after they drank excessively the night before? We don't know what alcohol she consumed before she had the three beers nor do we know if she also had drugs in her system that she put there herherself.

So, if no rape drug was used, then what do we have? If the woman was so drunk she didn't know Armstrong was having sex with her, maybe she was so drunk she didn't remember she had sex with him! If she can be so drunk not to remember what she was doing since she was in the bar (and obviously walked to the car and into the hotel room), why should we believe she couldn't have had consensual sex in that same state with Armstrong being totally unaware that she was unconscious on her feet? For that matter, if the woman can be so drunk as to not know what she is physically doing, why can't Armstrong be equally as drunk and unknowledgeable? And, while we are at it, how do we know she herself didn't rape Armstrong while he was flat on his back unconscious? It can happen. Please read this study about the repeated claims women make about being roofied not being proven to be true, that most of the time, binge drinking is really behind the condition of women who can't remember what happened the evening they went out partying. Men do ply women with alcohol because they know it makes them stupid and willing to have sex with them (hence, that Joe Nichols' country song about tequila making her clothes fall off).

To make matters worse, now the police are reaching out to the other women who might have been raped by this rich guy. Don't you think a few psycho women might be motivated to get attention and money from making such claims?

What I see here is an irresponsible police department and irresponsible media. Unless they actually have a confession from Armstrong, there would appear to be zero evidence to convict this man, but the damage will have already been done to him. I don't know this guy; he may be a sweetie or a total tool. He might brag about his wealth and celebrity status to get women to sleep with him (which is no a crime as the police seem to suggest) or women might throw themselves at him because they love money and fame. What I do know is that if the police don't have proof that Jack Armstrong put a date rape drug in this woman's beer which it appears they do not, all we have is a woman who drank too much, went willingly with a guy to his hotel room, and had buyer's remorse in the morning or saw an opportunity to get attention by filing a false police report. That is NOT rape and it is an insult to women who have been raped to say it is and it is wrong to charge men with rape just because they "got lucky" and after the fact, their luck changed.

PS. All "Shame on you, Pat Brown, for blaming the victim!" comments will be removed for being obtuse and not reading my blog properly. I am not blaming true victims of rape for the crime of rape. The rapist is 100% responsible for the crime. However, in terms of date rape, there are more responsible behaviors women can make that will keep them out of the hands of such criminals, like not getting trash drunk and going to hotel rooms with strangers because you think he wants to just have tea and explore your brilliant mind.

18 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Oh my god, excellent article! Very well said. I can't imagine women being angry with you, when you've clearly stated rape is wrong but so is falsely accusing someone of rape. This article is so true and this stuff needs to be publicised more or crazy women will carry on and give real rape victims (men, women and children) a bad name. We should be focussing on actual victims not drunken fools

Pat, this is one of your better articles EVER! I agree with every word spoken. I have two grown sons, both single, known in the art world, respectable, law abiding gentlemen; but sometimes living the fast-track and party hearty single lifestyle.

I can't tell you the many times I've worried, with my sons meeting up with friends and others in bars; what if one of these wired up scheming lou-lous, or one who had a prior vendetta against one of my sons; should falsely accuse him of rape? His life would be ruined forever, financially and in every other way. Just denying it or even proving it wasn't true would not be enough once their reputation and livelihood is destroyed.

I urge you, Pat; stick by your guns and keep speaking out about this horrible nightmare many men are subjected too. There should be a long prison sentence for women who falsely accuse men of rape!

I fully agree with your article. Thank you. This kind of women do their sisters no good. I know a real victim of rape. She didn't report to the police, she didn't even tell her own mother, as she felt nobody would believe her. Now, 20 years later, she's still a troubled person with psychological problems and social handicaps. Châtelaine

Excellently put. Many law enforcement agencies have tunnel vision and go with what "appears" to be the case instead of being objective and open minded, taking all the facts into consideration. They take the easy way out. If the police would complete and accurate investigation including the victims background many guilty suspects would never have been charged with rape to begin with.

One of my sons does part-time bouncer work at a very popular bar. The stories about the girls and their binge drinking and PUBLIC sexual behavior is pretty scary and I wish more mothers would realize their daughters are out there acting like girls gone wild. Truly, there is bad behavior from both sexes - lots of careless hooking up - in very inebriated states - plus a good many girls on Ecstasy - leading to a lot of hurt feelings, some date rapes, some false reporting, pregnancies with one-night stands, and bar fights. And this is an upscale place!

One reason I DO warn women about going someplace alone with a stranger especially after drinking and publicly kissing on him is that it would be very hard to prove after any rape that it was not consensual. It is a fact of life that women DO have to be cautious because although they may indeed be a victim they may not be able to prove it.

Just as there's a possibility that she fabricated the story or was just too drunk to remember surely there's a possibility that she WAS drugged and raped. Lack of hard evidence does not necessarily mean the woman is lying.

Rebecca, the police are not supposed to arrest and charge someone based on the possibility they could be telling the truth. There is supposed to be a requirement of probable cause based on evidence. If there was no test proving a date rape drug was administered by the accused nor has he given a statement that he used such a drug nor was there a witness to him putting something in her drink nor a vial of a date rape drug found in his pocket, then there is no proof of the man drugging the woman with intent to rape. Considering that the use of a date rape drug is extremely rare, unless one can be proven to have been used, the likelihood of her story being true is poor. We will have to wait and see if there is any evidence that a jury should convict Armstrong of a crime, but just like we will have to wait to find that out, we will have to acknowledge that the there is the possibility the accuser is victimizing Armstrong and she, not he, should be charged with a crime.

My "friend" date raped me and I am currently 9 months pregnant. I didn't report it because I didn't know the definition of date rape until I googled "date rape" in my 7th month. By law (in most states I believe) is that a man cannot take advantage of drunk women. He has even admitted to me on email that he knew I was inebriated. Now I am deciding on whether I want to press charges against him and go through some serious emotional duress with a newborn.

D Berry, I am sorry for your predicament, but are you saying you were unconscious at the time or just had sex while being in a drunken state? It may be on the books that a man who has sex with a woman who has been drinking shouldn't have sex with the woman even if she says yes, but I haven't seen this be a successful case in court because, quite frankly, it is ludicrous unless the woman is totally unconscious. Usually, the guy has been drinking, too, an the two people end up having sex as two willing parties. For the woman, to say later, that she was incapable of making a proper decision at the time, is ridiculous. IF a girl does not want to "mistakenly" engage in sex, she can make the decision, while sober, not to drink with men to a point where the lose the ability to turn them down for sex. Clearly, if you did not even know you had been raped, you hadn't. What you did was get drunk and have sex with someone. I think it is unfortunate, but you need to take responsibility for your choices (having sex and having sex without birth control) and the man must take responsibility (for having sex and having sex without birth control) and raise your child with as positive an attitude as possible. Filing rape charges against this young man is cruel and likely will end up with no positive outcome. Either he could be jailed and have his life ruined for the mistake BOTH of you made or he won't be jailed and you will have to live with the results AND the record your child will have to read when he/she grows up. What a terrible thing to do to that child. Along with that, you and the father of the child will start off with horrible enmity because instead of admitting to your mistakes and working together to make things better, you are going to destroy this child's life by hating each other over a mistake. Please think about it. You were not raped unless you were unconscious at the time and your child does not need to become the child of a rapist just because you are angry about your situation.

I have a different view from you. I believe that you should give a woman who says she has been raped the benefit of any doubt. I know that isn't the legal view but it is my emotional reaction. Yes, a man could be falsely accused and that would cause damage but in my opinion a woman being told by the legal system, her friends/family that she is lying when she actually has been raped is far worse. That's just my opinion.

You say "in terms of date rape there are more responsible behaviours." And I agree with you. Women getting so drunk they can't remember or take care of themselves are being irresponsible and stupid. But men can get very drunk without fear of being date raped, can they not? I think you are being sexist there.

Apparently, you are not aware of the many false reports police departments get from women accusing men of rape. My cop daughter responded to a call where a seven-month pregnant woman accused her husband's friend of raping her. Lucky for him, he filmed the sex act from behind without the woman's knowledge. Okay, he was a creep but the woman was willing to accuse of man of a crime that could cost him his freedom just because she cheated on her boyfriend

This is not an isolated incident. Women file false rape reports because they are covering up a foolish act, to get revenge on someone, or to get attention (psychopathic behavior). So, no, I do not think it is right to assume the woman is telling the truth and it is horrifying in the legal sense to grant her the benefit of the doubt; the system should never destroy someone's life based on an allegation with zero evidence.

As to being sexist, it is not sexist to point out reality. Yes, drunk women are more at risk than men if they get drunk as is they are more at risk if they walk alone on the street after dark. Sucks, but it is reality, not sexism. Likewise, small men have to be more careful about running into trouble in bars than big men who can fight better. Man have to go fight in wars; women don't. Women have babies, men don't. Older people are good victims. It isn't sexist; it is biology and nature. Life isn't equal or fair; it just is and we have to take care of ourselves with the situation we find ourselves in.

I have heard of many cases in which the woman was lying - my partner is a barrister. That doesn't mean every woman is lying, nor does it change my emotional reaction as being firmly on the woman's side until there is evidence to the contrary. This is why I don't work in law! And I am not saying the law should change, definitely not; just that I cannot imagine anything worse than being told you haven't been raped when you have.

As to the sexism. It is reality, yeah. But why? Because we live in a patriarchal, sexist society! You're saying that it is biology and nature that men rape vulnerable women! Which I think does a HUGE disservice to most men. No, life isn't equal or fair but life should be and we shouldn't just accept that vulnerable women become victims of a horrible, violent crime. Of course we have to take care of ourselves in the situation we find ourselves in but if we can work to change that situation why shouldn't we?

I'm sorry I'm not trying to start an argument I just thought your blog post was very one-sided (there are many cases where the rapist has got off are there not?!), especially considering you do not know all the facts.

Anonymous 10.10, sorry but you sound stupid. You clearly haven't read the article and your latest reply shows that you are arguing about points that done even make sense! Stop letting your emotions mush your brain! READ the article and Pat's replies properly!!

We disagree. That's fine. I assure you I've read Pat's article and her replies and my emotions are not mushing my brain.

My point comes down to: we don't know. We don't know very important facts like: was she injured? How much alcohol was in her system? Were there any drugs in her system? These are all things that will have been tested for, but we don't have that information.

All I am saying is:

1. we don't know what happened2. newspaper articles are not reliable3. I don't think this blog post is fair.

These are just my opinions. You can disagree (and obviously do). That's fine.

I think are gross many rapists walk the street because there was no proof. Leaving proof is not on there agenda. Try knowing your rapist got of because there was no proof. It never ending and they go on to live a free life. While I get everyone questioning me forever. Proof my backside this country promotes rape and encourages it. If someone beat a dog it would be taken from them and never repeated shame its not the same for humans. The system is for smartarses who want to do as little as possible.

Looks like an independent artist is prosecuted, tried and convicted by 1 accusation and the Beverly Hills Police Dept. giving media interviews. protect and serve no longer exists in America! police are now the prosecution. poor artist.

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By Pat Brown

"Killing for Sport is the most valuable insight into the minds of serial killers that you will ever read. While other profilers tend to conceal the clear facts behind complex technical language and psychobabble. Pat Brown actually tells it like it is."